Many of us keep journals, but while doing so few of
us pay much attention to selecting the most precise words, to determining
their most effective order, to working with effective pauses and
breath-like pacing, to presenting an engaging impression of a single,
unique day. This poem by Nebraskan Nancy McCleery is a good example of one
poet’s carefully recorded observations.
December Notes
The backyard is one white sheet Where we read in the bird tracks
The songs we hear. Delicate Sparrow, heavier cardinal,
Filigree threads of chickadee. And wing patterns where one flew
Low, then up and away, gone To the woods but calling out
Clearly its bright epigrams. More snow promised for tonight.
The postal van is stalled In the road again, the mail
Will be late and any good news Will reach us by hand.
Reprinted from Girl Talk, The Backwaters Press, 2002, by permission of the author.
Copyright © 1994 by Nancy McCleery. This weekly column is supported by
The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of
English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This column does not accept
unsolicited poetry.
This article appears in Jan 5-11, 2006.
